The ‘punk rock’ developer of the video game industry

It took root after his 2005 cult hit, Killer7, took off in the US — his first game to launch outside of Japan. You took control of seven assassins as you stylishly explored (and killed your way through) Suda’s fictional setting that highlighted political tensions between the US and Japan.

It looked like creepy anime, read flippantly, and played like a fever dream. It was a weird one, to be sure, and it wasn’t for everyone. But for those that Killer7 did strike, it struck them hard.

Punk, by definition, is the music genre born in the ‘70s, with a hard anti-mainstream bent. According to Suda, punk is about trying something new — something that no one else has tried — and doing it without regard to what’s appropriate or what’s established.

"I feel that pretty much the most punk thing you can do is try new things," Suda told me through a translator at a Seattle video game convention. "Do something no one’s ever tried before, because they didn’t think of it, because they didn’t have the guts to."

But Suda’s never really considered himself "punk," at least in the way it’s most commonly defined. It’s a label that others have put on him, and one he’s embraced.

"I take photos and make punkish-like expressions or say punkish things sometimes but it’s not really because I’m trying to be punk," Suda said. "I’m basically just trying to do what I want to do."

"To put it in terms of actual punk music, generation-wise, I wasn’t really around during punk itself," Suda said. "I never got influenced by punk. Generation-wise and work-wise, I am more of a post-punk guy. Musically, that’s what I’m more influenced by."

Regardless, he does think No More Heroes exemplifies that "punk" brand, in its own way.

Suda, working on the next installment of his most recent franchise — No More Heroes — referenced the unique control schemes he’s become known for and promises that No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again will surprise fans with a ton of new ideas they haven’t seen before. It’s all very close to the Grasshopper Manufacturer chest, as it currently stands.

The game was only just announced, so all we know is that Travis is back, and apparently he’s striking again. The story will revisit Travis’ antics, his role as the anti-hero, as well as some of the revenge themes that the previous titles explored, this time focused on Badman (note: not Batman) as we’ve seen in the reveal trailer.

There was one new theme in this trailer, though. As the camera pans over to Travis in his dingy trailer home, we see that he’s playing indie hit Hotline Miami. We’ve always known Travis to be a big gamer — he’s actually in many ways a reflection of Suda himself — but No More Heroes 3 will have other cameos and collaborative ties with indie games. It’s part punk, part Suda.

For Suda, the punk brand he’s become known for is about more than just the style of his games. It’s about independence.

The idea of doing whatever you want, creatively, and it’s what appealed him to indie games in the first place. As he’s met more and more independent creators and seen the dynamics of how their teams work and the work they create, he’s been more and more drawn into the world of small team developments where anything goes.

"You can pretty much create whatever you want," he said. "You can put in your own personal elements."

And that’s a sticking point for Suda — personal elements are how he identifies indie games. "One thing I feel is a must-have for an indie game, sort of a condition for it to count as an indie game, is to have personal elements."

"Grasshopper started out basically as an indie studio," Suda said. "Over the years, we’ve grown, working on all our games on much bigger teams. For this game, I really wanted to go back to the indie spirit of when I first started out. We scaled back the size of the team to just 10 people. I’ve been really hands on with it, directing every part of it. This game was made in the style of an indie game. Small team sharing the responsibilities. You can totally consider this an indie title, in fact I’d like people to consider it as an indie title."

"Generation-wise and work-wise, I am more of a post-punk guy."

Scaling his team back to roughly 10 developers means that Suda gets a chance to survey every aspect of the game’s development. It’s a workflow that Suda’s familiar with, from the days of Grasshopper’s roots in the late ‘90s.

"I constantly had the parameters of my staff in my mind all the time," Suda said. "I always knew what everyone was good at and wasn’t so good at, I always knew what everyone was doing, I always knew what kind of jobs to give to certain people and what to give to other people."

It’s how they made the first No More Heroes but, as the studio expanded into the sequel and, later, the horror-esque action game Shadows of the Damned, it didn’t last. The teams expanded and Suda wasn’t able to work as closely with all of his developers anymore.

Independent studios, on the other hand, usually allow creative leads to stay in tune with their handful of developers. It’s a style of working that Suda has missed.

"That’s one of the things I’m most happy about going back to the indie style of things," he said. "I know what’s going on, I know how to do it, I know what everyone else is doing, everyone else knows what everyone is doing, and I’m really confident we can make something cool doing this, the way indie guys have been doing it."

So maybe he’s more indie at heart than he is punk, though he’s obviously wholeheartedly embraced the image gamers have attributed to him. He’s happy to take on the role of unfettered freedom that comes with the punk ideology, and he’s happy to scale his team back down to an indie-appropriate size to be more hands on than recent years have allowed him to be.

But he did have his own insight into how he feels his style as a developer is and that’s, vaguely, not being too proud of his work. I was told by the translator that Suda’s wording doesn’t quite equate into English, but it’s the sentiment of not attaching yourself to an idea simply because it’s yours. In Japanese, it's: 自分のアイディアにプライドを持たないようにしている。(Jibun no aidia ni puraido wo motanai you ni shiteiru.)

"If I have an idea, I try it out. If it doesn’t work, I say, 'Ok, fine, screw it, this doesn’t work, this is a waste of time, I’m going to throw this away and move onto the next thing.' By not having too much pride in what I’m doing and by not having too much pride in my work, I’m able to roll with the flow and evolve what I’m doing in order to make the best thing possible. I’m not sure if that’s exactly a punk way of doing things, but not having too much pride is really important to me and depending on how you look at it that could maybe be considered to be something that’s somewhat akin to punk."

There you have it, from Suda51 himself: He’s not punk, he’s post-punk. He’s indie, he’s personal, and he doesn’t let pride get in the way of making something great.

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